Tag: Surrey

Chalk grasslands

I am very fortunate to live on the North Downs in Surrey, England where we have within our neighbourhood woodlands and a small pocket of chalk grassland.  I only recently discovered the significance of chalk grassland through a community group formed in the Dome Hill neighbourhood of Caterham.  All the property owners clubbed together to buy a stretch of grassland to avoid it being bought by developers and it turns out that this is a fairly unique parcel of chalk grassland which we are now preserving.

Why are Chalk Grasslands so special?

Chalk grasslands develop on shallow lime-rich soils, overlaying chalk rocks. Most of England was once covered by woodlands, but the Downs (in the south-east of England) were cleared by ancient people to graze animals, mainly sheep.  This created an open landscape with few trees and shrubs, and species-rich grassland.  It is one of the richest plant communities where up to 50 species of plant can be found in a square metre.  The UK has about half of the world’s chalk grasslands.  A wide variety of insects and wildlife can also be found here – some of the  plants and animals are totally dependent on chalk grassland and cannot survive anywhere else. For further information visit the Old Surrey Downs web site.

I spent a couple of hours in a small section of our little parcel of grassland on Saturday 9 June 2012 with my camera and here are some of the results:-

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Series of Four #8 – English Landscapes in black and white

Series of Four

This is the eighth Blog in the “Series of Four” series. Each blog focuses on a different aspect of photography, either technical or creative.  To see the full set of “Series of Four” blogs, click here.

English Landscapes

These are four English landscapes taken in the ‘Home Counties’ – Surrey and Kent – within a 20 minute drive or so from my home.  You can see where the English masters such as Turner and Constable got their skies and clouds from.  Using black and white emphasises the contrast and drama of the images, as does using different portrait and landscape formats.

  • The top two images are from Penshurst in Kent, England.  They were taken in September 2011. 
  • The third was taken near Shere in Surrey, England shortly before a storm in September 2008.
  • The fourth shot is of a Post Office in Kent, England, taken in May 2009.

 

Series of Four #6 – Perspective at the forest floor

Series of Four

This is the sixth Blog in the “Series of Four” series. Each blog focuses on a different aspect of photography, either technical or creative.  To see the full set of “Series of Four” blogs, click here.

Perspective at the forest floor

What would a walk in the forest for a four-inch photographer look like?  Changing the perspective can open up a whole different world.  Lighting can be a challenge.

All of these were shot in the woodlands of the North Downs in Surrey, England which are within a mile of where I live except the bottom right image which was shot near Fresvik in Norway.

 

 

Event Photography – The Ordination

The day

     2nd October will be the anniversary of Stephanie Nadarajah’s Ordination to the Priesthood for all the years to come.  Here are a selection of images from the day including a band of supporters travelling to Southwark Cathedral in South London from St Mary’s Caterham, a few shots in the Cathedral (though not of the actual Ordination Service because we were all involved in that as worshippers and not as photographers) and then during Steph’s first communion celebrated in the evening at St Mary’s parish church, Caterham. 

If you would like copies of these images, please contact me (Len Abrams) at info@seasonimages.com. 

 

Photographic points

     Event photography is a particular avenue of professional photography with its own demands and rewards.  This is the first ordination service of Anglican (Episcopalian) priests which I have photographed, which I did at the request of the parish.  Photographing church services is a specific challenge as it needs to be done with sensitivity to the people and the ceremony being conducted.  I therefore do not use flash or other special lighting which requires high ISO settings, slow shutter speeds and wide open apertures, all of which calls for a steady hand.  On the occasion of this ordination I was intent on capturing the involvement of parishioners, friends and family as it is very much a community event as well as being a very important milestone in the life of those being ordained.  I wanted to capture both symbolic images and intimate moments, together with some of the activities around the event.

 

 

Wedding photography

Wedding photography is the bread and butter of many High Street photographers.  Many do it really well – at a price.

I have deliberately stayed away from wedding photography for a number of reasons :-

  • the stress and pressure of THE DAY, which might just be another wedding shoot for you but it is THE day for bride and groom and their family and friends;
  • it is a highly competitive area with all sorts of photographers involved – the good, the bad and the …..;
  • the life style where weddings are generally on the weekend, meaning a substantial commitment over the years if you are going to do it properly;
  • the limited scope for creative expression with much of the actual photography being prescribed and formulaic.  This is not to say that there are not many very creative wedding photographers out there.

I was privileged recently to do a wedding as a rare once-off event and it went really well.  I was very concerned to capture the special day, to do a high quality professional job and the family were very happy and complimentary about the results.  It is a privilege to be part of a special family time – to capture the essence of the event in a non-intrusive way.

Doing the occasional wedding on a specialist basis has its advantages and can be very rewarding creatively (and financially).